Yesterday, men and women gathered together in major cities across the world: Washington D.C., New York City, Austin, Nashville, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Barcelona, and many more. Together they marched to show the new president their numbers, which are too massive and too loud to ignore. The #WomensMarch served as a safe haven for all walks of life to stand together in unity without judgement, and to show our new “president” that we will not be berated by him or be stripped of our basic human rights and the rights to our bodies. But let’s not forget the numbers that brought us here: 58% of White voters voted for Donald Trump, 8% of Black voters for Donald Trump, 29% of Hispanic/Latino and Asian voters voted for Donald Trump, and 37% of other races voted for Donald Trump.
With devoted supporters commending the event, unsurprisingly there came opposers to the movement as well. Somewhat surprising, a majority of them were female. But don’t worry, we’ll still fight for your rights too.
Those who attended their designated marches shared their photos and experiences on social media while those who could not attend but wanted to shared their appreciation and admiration of the marchers and organizers posted as well. And then, we had those who announced their disapproval on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter asking the question of “why is this necessary?” In their eyes, Trump has won and therefore we, the people, can not change that. Female Trump supporters wrote articles ranting about how tired they were of feminists, angry white boys took to Instagram and posted their favorite pictures of Donald Trump partnered with a lengthy caption about how “we need to get over this,” and then there’s the outspoken family members – we all have one – who decided to poison our comment section with snippets about our “millennial privilege.”
See, we’re the smart ones. Not to say that Trump supporters are all hillbillies brainwashed by their bible-belt childhoods or privileged white frat boys named Chad or Brad or Ryan or Doug or the most frustrating of opposers: blinded college girls trying to impress Chad. But we the open-minded, eyes-wide-open opposers of Donald Trump understand that this new presidency is more than just a possible end to our economic crisis (which Obama helped America out of amongst numerous other accomplishments). We understand that Donald Trump’s presidency is also the possible end of life as women, immigrants, the LGBTQ, black, and muslim community know it. Our rights could be taken – it’s already starting! But we will keep fighting for those who think we’re crazy. We will especially keep fighting for our women.
We’ll keep fighting for them because they are us. As traffic cone Trump said in his inauguration speech, “we bleed the same blood.” Now whether he believes that or not, it doesn’t matter, because we believe it. We cannot leave those who don’t agree with us behind because they have chosen to devise their own opinions. That is not what democracy is all about.
We will still fight for the rights of women who hate feminists because we want them to have safe access to abortions as some of us may know what its like to have an unsafe one. We’ll fight for their right to easily accessible birth control and condoms because some of us know the feelings of terror and regret wishing we had that sort of protection. We’ll fight for their safety in terms of problems like campus rape, sexual violence, domestic violence, and dating violence because some of us are survivors of those catastrophes. We will fight for them regardless of their ridicule, mockery, and hatred towards us because we want to show Donald Trump and the likes of him that we are a united front. There is no rift or hole in this wall we’ve made around our own.
So, to our anti-feminism ladies, we will still fight for you because our nation is the nation of opportunity, freedom, and possibility. We’ll still fight for your right to write asinine things on social media, because you are a part of a nation that was built on the principle that freedom of speech is something that makes America great. But remember, freedom of speech does not just cater to what you choose to protest and post, it includes what we choose to protest and post too. We’ll still fight for your right to your own body, your daughter’s bodies. We’ll fight for your right to a safe place when you an STD test or a cancer screening. We’ll fight for your right to vote. We’ll fight for your right to earn the same amount that your ranting male counterparts earn doing the same damn job. We will fight for your right and your loved ones right to the same opportunity given to men. We’ll fight because if these rights are ever taken away, at least we can say we fought, and we can keep fighting.
FEM THE FUTURE.
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